Tuesday, May 10, 2011

We all know about a panic room, but a team of architects literally thought inside the box to come up with the ultimate safety zone for anyone harbouring apocalyptic thoughts.

The Safe House, built on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, is about as secure as any above-ground home will ever be - at the touch of a selection of buttons the house closes into an impregnable concrete cube

Doors and windows are sealed from the outside world using powerful concrete panels, and the only way to get in our out once the place has been shut up is via a second-floor entrance protected by a rising drawbridge.
Rather redundantly, the property is also surrounded by a wall.

Polish architectural firm KWK Promes, the architects behind the design, wrote on its website: 'The most essential item for our clients was acquiring the feeling of maximum security.'

Anyone still feeling threatened after the Safe House closes up might want to think about professional help.

The fortress effect is achieved by a series of moving walls and shutters. In 'open' mode, concrete slabs either swing or slide out to reveal windows and doorways that let in a remarkable amount of light.

When closing, metal shutters provide additional security.

And there's no reason to sacrifice comfort for security - the design features all the mod-cons and everything that a reclusive family may desire.

The architects don't reveal how long it takes for the entire property to clam up (presumably for security reasons), nor do they reveal what happens if the whole thing malfunctions and the cube becomes a well-appointed tomb.

In that event, there's undoubtedly plenty of storage space for food and water.